Perfectly Cromulent: The Fake Word That Became Real
Mrs. Krabappel stares at a banner. It reads: "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." She turns to Miss Hoover and says what every viewer is thinking.
"I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield."
Miss Hoover's response became one of the greatest throwaway lines in television history: "I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word."
The Scene That Launched a Thousand Dictionary Entries
The episode is "Lisa the Iconoclast" (Season 7, Episode 16, aired February 18, 1996). Lisa discovers that Jebediah Springfield, the town's beloved founder, was actually Hans Sprungfeld, a murderous pirate who tried to kill George Washington. The town's historical narrative is a complete fabrication.
The genius of the scene is its placement. Two elementary school teachers discuss the town motto like it's completely normal. Neither acknowledges that "embiggens" sounds ridiculous. Mrs. Krabappel's only concern is that she hadn't heard it before. Miss Hoover's defense? That it's "perfectly cromulent."
Two fake words in six seconds. Neither explained. The show trusts you to get it.
What "Cromulent" Actually Means
Here's the thing: "cromulent" didn't have a meaning when writers David X. Cohen and Dan Greaney created it. It just sounded like it should mean something. The -ulent suffix (like "fraudulent" or "corpulent") gives it linguistic legitimacy. Your brain fills in the rest.
Context made the meaning clear. When Miss Hoover calls "embiggens" a "perfectly cromulent word," she's saying it's acceptable, legitimate, fine. Maybe even proper. The joke works because the fake word perfectly describes another fake word.
Over time, usage crystallized the definition. "Cromulent" now means "acceptable" or "fine" with a slight wink. It's the word you use when something is good enough but you want to acknowledge the absurdity of the situation.
From Springfield to Oxford
The Simpsons has contributed more words to English than any other TV show. "D'oh" made it into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001. "Meh" followed. But "cromulent" took a different path.
Merriam-Webster added it to their dictionary in 2023. Not as slang. As an actual word meaning "acceptable" or "satisfactory." Twenty-seven years from fictional joke to linguistic legitimacy.
This happened because people kept using it. Programmers named functions "cromulent." Academics slipped it into papers. It appeared in the Google Ngram corpus. The Simpsons didn't just coin a word. They demonstrated how language actually works.
The Embiggens Connection
You can't discuss "cromulent" without "embiggens." They're a pair. Same scene, same joke structure, same trajectory.
"Embiggens" means to make larger or more powerful. It works because the prefix "em-" (like "empower" or "embellish") combines with "big" in a way that feels linguistically plausible. Merriam-Webster added this one too.
The Simpsons essentially ran a linguistic experiment on live television. Take words that don't exist, deploy them with confidence, and watch as millions of viewers adopt them. It worked better than anyone expected.
Why This Scene Matters
The Jebediah Springfield reveal is the episode's plot. But the cromulent/embiggens exchange is its legacy. It captures something essential about The Simpsons at its peak: jokes that reward attention, layers that reveal themselves on rewatches, and a willingness to trust the audience.
Mrs. Krabappel (voiced by the late Marcia Wallace) delivers her line with perfect deadpan confusion. Miss Hoover's response is delivered with slight condescension, as if Mrs. Krabappel is the strange one for not knowing. Two teachers validating fake words. Springfield in a nutshell.
The scene also accidentally proved a point about language. Words mean what we agree they mean. If enough people use "cromulent" to mean "acceptable," then that's what it means. The Simpsons didn't break the rules of English. They demonstrated them.
For the Fans Who Get It
If someone calls your taste "perfectly cromulent," you know exactly what they mean. You know the episode it came from. You know the joke behind the joke. It's a shared language for people who grew up watching the same show.
That's what golden era Simpsons references do. They're a handshake. A signal. "You watched the same episodes I did. You remember the same lines."
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